Backup Options

Don't Expand Option

The Backup menu option on the main Almond Doubler GUI window allows you to choose how compressed files will be handled during system backups.

Selecting the Don't Expand item under the Backup menu allows you to toggle the mode of operation of The Almond Doubler. You have the choice of forcing compressed files to remain compressed when they are backed up to tape or other archival storage device (preserving an exact image of your disk and reducing backup time and space requirements) or you can allow The Almond Doubler to operate normally and decompress all files before they are backed up (which requires more time and space and also leaves your system disk completely decompressed after backup until the automatic compression daemon goes through and compresses the appropriate files).

Selecting these options from the GUI is only possible if a System Administrator is present during backup operations. To allow for unattended toggling of The Almond Doubler's decompression modes, two scripts are provided in the home .doubler directory: doubler_enable and doubler_disable. These scripts can be embedded in a cron job or other batch program which is controlling the backup procedure.

Calling doubler_disable immediately before the backup process would leave all files in their compressed state during backup and the automatic decompression daemon would not be active again until the script doubler_enable was run, typically after the backup procedure was completed.